Friday, September 26, 2014

It may seem strange that I get excited for Friday since I'm self employed and wind up working most every day. Even if I am working, the weekend is still the weekend. On Friday's I usually cook something more involved than pizza for dinner. When Andy get's home from work we have a cocktail and kick back a bit before dinner. Tonight I'm making Carnita Pork and will serve it will a corn salsa, black beans, avocado's and rice. I can never get enough avocado in any form - sliced, in guacamole or fried. I will eat it any way that it comes! Andy has been working a lot. Between his day job and building our deck (pictures next week!) I haven't seen as much of him as I usually do. Since a large portion of the deck was rather high up and I am terrified of heights, I wasn't able to help out. Now that the decking boards are mostly done I've been able to give him a hand.

I've been working on a pair of Bethesda's Socks in the Sock It To Me KAL in my Ravelry group. If you haven't joined in, there is still plenty of time to get a pair of socks knitted up. The holidays are right around the corner and socks make a great gift! This is my sock in progress. The yarn is from the Murder on the Moors yarn club that The Natural Dye Studio did earlier this year. The club was a lot of fun, reasonably priced and came with a short mystery story in each shipment.

Next week I have a new pattern set in Bare Naked Wools Ghillie Sport/DK coming out! It's called Sugardance and will include a cowl and mitt pattern. The pattern will be released on Monday and Knitspot will be having a pattern giveaway on their blog, so keep a look out there. It's a super easy knit and would make a great gift for a friend for the holidays! I know, I know the leaves haven't even fallen off the trees yet. Isn't it better to get started on that holiday knitting now, rather than to wait until the last minute and have to block a project in your hotel room or at your in laws?

Saturday, September 20, 2014

I recently got a very lovely package of yarn from Deborah at Yarn Indulgences. Deborah has a fantastic online shop that specializes in hand dyed yarns in a fabulous array of colors. I had a really hard time choosing between them because each skein is a work of art. This is what arrived in my mailbox:

This next lovely skein is in the Indulgent Fingering base in the Maleficent colorway. Can we say fabulous purple and green?! Indulgent Fingering is a 100% Superwash Merino base which has a lovely luster and the colors really pop on it. I have to say that both of these yarns are much more vibrant than what my pictures are showing. My camera has been a bit of a party pooper recently and I fear that it will need to be replaced in the near future. I'm hoping that a new memory card will improve things a bit and will try that first.

I also received this beautiful batt as a prize for participating in the Tour de Fleece in the Dropped Stitches Podcast group on Ravelry. The batt is from Knit Spin Farm and is a beautiful blend of Blue Faced Leicester, Angelina, Corriedale, Finn, Merino, Sari Silk and Silk Noil. The colorway is Violets at my Feet which is the perfect name for it! It's quite soft and scrumptious feeling and is going to be a dream to spin up.

Julia tucked in a few other little goodies into the package. I feel very spoiled!

Friday, September 12, 2014

I've joined up with Natasha from Unplanned Peacock to bring you this lovely wrap. Eclipse is a super easy, short row, garter stitch shawl worked up in Unplanned Peacock'sPeacock Sock. Peacock Sock has a lovely hand and I really enjoyed knitting with it. It comes in an incredible selection of colors and Natasha is always helpful in choosing ones that go together if you have a hard time with that.

Eclipse one of those knits that you will want to take with you to work on everywhere you go. If you make a mistake while working on it, it's not a big deal. The garter stitch will hide it and only you will know. For those of us who aren't fond of picking up wraps on short rows, good news! No need to pick up the wraps. The lovely garter stitch texture hides them perfectly.

I want to thank you all so much for your support of my designs. I really can't express how grateful I am! I love seeing all the things that you are knitting and enjoy the friendly chatter that you bring to my Ravelry group and on Facbook. I am not always able to have coupons or sales for new designs, but try to offer them as frequently as I can. For Eclipse, use coupon code: Luna for $1.00 off in my Ravelry pattern shop. Thank you again for your support!

Friday, September 5, 2014

Fall is the perfect time for cowl
knitting. They are fun and easy, plus make great holiday gifts. If you
are a last minute gift knitter (like me!), then you know how nice it is
to be able to have a gift made ahead of when you need it (instead of
finishing it up in the car and trying to block it in the hotel room).

Guidelines:
Cast on no earlier than September 12.
Use any of my cowl patterns.
Post a picture of your finished cowl by October 19 midnight your time to qualify for prizes.
Tag you project with LSCowltastic.
Use coupon code: Cowltastic for $1.00 off of one pattern for the KAL. The coupon is good through September 12.

I can’t wait to see what you guys make! Spark and Camberwell are perfect for using up stash left overs if you are on a yarn diet.

Socks are one of my favorite things to knit and I can’t seem to get
enough of them. They are great for gift giving - to those who are sock
worthy of course! I owe a pair to a friend who hand washes the ones I
made for her a couple of years ago so I am going to join in on this one.

Guidelines:
Cast on no earlier than September 12.
Use any of my sock patterns.
Post a picture of your finished socks by October 19 midnight your time to qualify for prizes.
Tag you project with LSSockItToMe.

Modifications? Of course! If you prefer toe up and want to alter one
of my patterns to knit them toe up, sideways, or any other mod’s feel
free to do so. I really love seeing what you make from my patterns and
love seeing the mod’s too!

Use coupon code: SockIt for $1.00 off of one pattern for the KAL. The coupon is good through September 12.

Sock it to me??? Why this name? My maiden name was Toomey and when my
mom was pregnant with me she was a teacher. She told me that her
students wanted her to call me Sockit Toomey. I always thought this was
really funny :)

I'm working on the prizes for both KAL's. If you would like to donate a prize, please let me know!

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About Me

My husband and I live in Central Virginia with the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains as the backdrop for our home. We spend most of our free time together and I feel very fortunate that Im married to my best friend.
I started designing and writing patterns as a way to express my love for the beautiful yarns that find their way into my stash. I love being able to create a new design for a special yarn. I hope that you will enjoy knitting my patterns as much as I have enjoyed designing them.
Follow me on my Facebook page - Lara Smoot - Designs for pattern release dates and sneak peeks at what I’m working on.